Lithuania's Liberals, Šimašius losing popularity - BNS/RAIT poll

BNS

Friday, November 17, 2017

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Lithuania's Liberals, Šimašius losing popularity - BNS/RAIT poll

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The Lithuanian Liberal Movement, which has been battling a leadership crisis and recently lost state funding over financing violations, is also losing the support of the voters, shows a poll conducted by the market research company RAIT for BNS Lithuania.

In the latest poll, the Liberals are supported by 6 percent of respondents, a sharp decline from 9 percent in the last two surveys.

According to the poll, the opposition conservatives may expect the highest support at the moment, with 18 percent of those polled planning to vote for the conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats. The ruling Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union is close behind, with support of 15 percent. The difference between the two parties and the change in its ratings has been within the error margin for the past four months.

According to the poll, other parties would fail to cross the five-percent margin to win parliamentary mandates. The Order and Justice party and the Lithuanian Center Party are the closest to the margin with support of 4 percent of those polled.

The poll was conducted on Oct. 14-29. During the survey, Lithuania's election watchdog announced that the Liberal Movement had committed a gross violation of election campaign financing rules and decided to leave it without a six-month grant. Soon after that, Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius resigned from the party's leadership.

The survey period was also prevailed by heated discussions about the split of the Social Democratic Party and the government-proposed 2018 budget draft, while the Constitutional Court ruled that a referendum was needed to secure dual citizenship.

Šimašius losing confidence

According to the poll, the Liberal Movement's problems have also undermined Šimašius' popularity. In the survey, 30 percent of respondents favoured Šimašius and 26 percent disliked him, as compared with respective figures of 43 percent and 17 percent a month ago. The Lithuanian capital's mayor is most favored by young wealthy individuals, while people of older age and the lowest income have the least confidence in him. During the survey, the mayor's plans to sack then administrative director was in the spotlight of public attention.

No major changes were reported in the popularity line-up of other politicians.